Republicans Wary Of Redskins-Giants Clashing With McCain Speech

Redskins-Giants Could Conflict With McCain's
Acceptance Speech At Republican Convention

Republican National Convention officials are "warily eyeing" tonight's NFL season-opening Redskins-Giants game on NBC and "hoping that it won't complicate" U.S. Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) speech accepting the Republican nomination for President, according to Paul Farhi of the WASHINGTON POST. Tonight's game is scheduled to kick off at 7:07pm ET on NBC, which "could put it directly in the path" of McCain's speech, which is scheduled between 10:00-11:00pm. NBC said that it "expects the game to wrap up within three hours, as both NBC and the NFL say such telecasts typically do." NFL Senior VP/PR Greg Aiello said that the NFL earlier this year, at the request of NBC, agreed to move the start time of tonight's game up from 8:30pm "because of the potential convention overlap." TV industry sources speculated that McCain "would delay his speech until NBC starts its convention broadcast" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/4). NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league moved up the time of the game because the "country needs to see what is going on in these conventions, they’re important developments for all of us” (“Mike & Mike in the Morning,” ESPN2, 9/4). Aiello indicated that the net "hasn't asked the league to interrupt the game for [McCain's speech] and then continue it later" (SAN ANGELO STANDARD-TIMES, 9/4).

BIGGER PLAYBOOK: NBC is streaming its NFL coverage this season for free on NFL.com and NBCSports.com, and USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand notes beginning with Redskins-Giants, viewers can "choose between four angles -- end zone, sideline, the overhead cable-cam and a camera isolated on one player -- taken by NBC's 22 TV cameras." The net's TV coverage "won't change," but an "online producer in an NBC production truck will pick up the shots ... for Web coverage, allowing users to choose how many shots they want simultaneously." Online coverage also will offer "slightly fewer ads than TV does." Additionally, NFL Digital Dir Noah Fischbach said that analyst Cris Collinsworth and reporter Andrea Kremer, as well as an NFL Network analyst, will "contribute to a real-time blog" (USA TODAY, 9/4).